Media draw criticism, thanks for coverage of Trayvon Martin case

Local African American leaders leveled some strong criticism of the media Thursday for its coverage of the Trayvon Martin case, but they ultimately thanked news organizations for taking the teen's story worldwide.

Speaking on a panel sponsored by Florida news media groups, the black leaders said they felt the media were responsible for too much misinformation and distortion surrounding the killing of Trayvon by George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain in Sanford who was acquitted by a jury last Saturday.

"There was an implicit bias against African American young people in a lot of the coverage," said Allie Braswell, chief executive of the Central Florida Urban League. "Did that play a role in the case? I think it had to play a role. Those images run over and over again began to influence people; people who eventually may have become jurors."

The news industry's coverage problem, they said, began the night of the shooting on Feb. 26, 2012. While most of the attention was on Orlando hosting the NBA All-Star game, they noted that the shooting barely drew a line in the crime blotter.

"Folks just look at that as just another black boy dead in Sanford — it's not that big a story," said Francis C. Oliver, the curator of the Goldsboro Historical Museum, which chronicles black history in Sanford. "We kept waiting for something to come out. We told Tracy Martin (Trayvon's father), 'If you don't do something, it'll be swept under the carpet.' "

Oliver and Braswell were joined on the panel by Norton Bonaparte, Sanford's city manager, and Michelle Guido, the Orlando Sentinel's breaking news editor and the panel's only non-African American member. The event was part of the annual convention of the Florida Press Association and Florida Society of News Editors.

Guido acknowledged that many media outlets had sensationalized the story, but she warned against stereotyping all news organizations based on the sensational ones. She emphasized the Sentinel staff's long hours of fact-finding, checking and re-checking sources, and careful sorting through the facts to cover the story and to avoid sensationalism.

"From a breaking-news standpoint, in terms of how we covered the story and how we continue to cover it, I'm extremely proud of what we did," she said. "We covered the news as it happened and we did enterprise stories. We looked deeper, significantly deeper, into the issues."

In March, the Sentinel won a first-place award from the American Society of News Editors for "In the Shadow of Race," its in-depth reporting on race relations in Central Florida after the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Oliver acknowledged that coverage by the Sentinel and other media outlets had played a big role in getting Zimmerman to trial after police had initially let him go. She also noted that it has now become an international movement for justice as a result of the publicity.

"I want to thank the media for taking this story forward," Oliver said. "Without getting this story out, this would not be the movement it has become. So I applaud the role of the media for that."